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Seeking Allies, Teachers’ Unions Court G.O.P., Too

The strike by public school teachers in Chicago this month drew national attention to a fierce debate over the future of education and exposed the ruptured relationship between teachers’ unions and Democrats like Mayor Rahm Emanuel.

Over the past few years, even as Republicans have led efforts to thwart unions, lawmakers previously considered solid supporters of teachers’ unions have tangled with them over a national education agenda that includes new performance evaluations based partly on test scores, the overhaul of tenure and the expansion of charter schools.

As these traditional political alliances have shifted, teachers’ unions have pursued some strange bedfellows among lawmakers who would not appear to be natural allies.

In Illinois, the top two recipients of political contributions from the Illinois Education Association through June 30 were Republicans, including a State House candidate who has Tea Party support and advocates lower taxes and smaller government.

William Seitz, a Republican state senator in Ohio who is a member of the American Legislative Exchange Council, a conservative business-backed group, has received more money this year from the Ohio Education Association than from any other donor. Teachers’ organizations in Georgia and Texas have also donated to numerous Republicans.

While donations to Democrats still far outweigh contributions to Republicans, the proportion of union money going to Republican candidates this year, just over 8 percent, has doubled since the last election cycle, according to the institute. In some states, the increase has been steeper. In Ohio, the proportion of contributions to Republicans jumped to more than 21 percent this year from less than 1 percent in 2010. Similarly, in Illinois, where 16 percent of donations went to Republicans in 2010, the proportion has increased to 22 percent.

“The notion that just because you’re a Democrat” you can take the teachers’ unions for granted has changed, said Jim Reed, director of government relations for the Illinois Education Association.

As teachers grapple with a reform agenda backed by hedge funds and large philanthropic donors and championed by the Obama administration as well as some conservative Republicans, the unions are navigating a delicate political landscape where they increasingly pursue friends in unlikely places.

“Instead of reaching across the aisle to find support for increased funding for public education,” said Richard W. Hurd, a professor of labor studies at Cornell, “they are reaching across the aisle for people who are not sold on the idea that charter schools are good, or that testing should be used for all teacher evaluations, or that teachers should lose job security.”

Such cross-party alliances have attracted the scrutiny of advocacy groups that unions have criticized for pouring money into the campaigns of candidates who support easing limits on charter schools and abolishing teacher seniority rules. Students First, the group run by Michelle A. Rhee, the former schools chancellor in Washington, provided The New York Times with a list of candidates who had received campaign donations from teachers’ unions, which The Times has independently verified.

Students First has contributed nearly $640,000 to Republicans in this election cycle, including money to some candidates who hold right-wing views on issues like abortion and same-sex marriage. The group, one of several that have contributed to candidates who support their education agenda, has also donated almost $1.4 million to Democrats.

Tim Melton, legislative director of Students First, pointed out that many of the state candidates they support are members of the American Legislative Exchange Council, an organization that the American Federation of Teachers and the National Education Association have condemned for its education agenda, which includes vouchers, charter schools and test-based evaluations.

“I’m greatly surprised that they would attack us ferociously for something they are doing themselves,” Mr. Melton said.

Union officials say they are just being practical. “It doesn’t do a whole lot of good to shut out the Republicans who at least have the potential to be friends of the public schools,” said Clay Robison, a spokesman for the Texas State Teachers Association.

The teachers have also courted Republican lawmakers willing to go against their party to support issues like collective bargaining.

In Ohio, Mr. Seitz was one of just six Republicans who voted against a bill that would have restricted the bargaining rights of public sector unions and eliminated seniority-based layoff protection for teachers.

In a statement, the Ohio Education Association, which has given $11,450 to Mr. Seitz this year, cited his willingness to “listen to our positions on collective bargaining.”

Mr. Seitz leads the civil justice task force of the American Legislative Exchange Council, but he said that he was “not obligated to introduce legislation on education” that aligned with the council’s platform. When the Ohio House proposed a bill to expand the number of students who could use public vouchers to attend private schools, he told proponents that it went too far. Opposition to vouchers and charter schools helped secure Charles E. Meier, a conservative farmer running for a seat in the Illinois House, $38,000 in campaign contributions from the Illinois Education Association and an additional $5,000 from the Illinois Federation of Teachers this year.

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State Senator William Seitz.

Mr. Meier sounds like a typical conservative when he rails against graduated tax rates. But when he talks about his disapproval of charters and vouchers, he sounds almost like a teachers’ union representative.

“If we start giving out vouchers and everything, or the kids go to other charter schools,” Mr. Meier said, “we’re then hurting our district.” Teachers’ unions similarly argue that charter schools siphon away taxpayer dollars and the most motivated students.

Teachers’ unions in New York State have devoted close to a quarter of their political contributions this year to Republicans, while the United Federation of Teachers in New York City has donated exclusively to Democrats.

The unions have been forced to make concessions on charter school caps and teacher evaluations, but remain largely aligned with Democrats.

But with many Democrats now supporting reforms that make teachers wary, some Democrats suspect that some unions are supporting opponents as a form of punishment.

In Indiana, Larry Grau, state director of Democrats for Education Reform, a group that supports test-based evaluations and charter schools, said he believed the political action committee of the Indiana State Teachers Association was “trying to send a message to Democrats” by endorsing Brent Waltz, a conservative state senator.

Mr. Waltz, who voted against a bill that would have restored $150 million in state education financing, is running to keep his State Senate seat against Representative Mary Ann Sullivan, who was the only Democrat in the House to champion an education bill that tied teacher pay and promotions to performance.

Nate Schnellenberger, president of the Indiana State Teachers Association, said it was “absolutely incorrect” that the union had endorsed Mr. Waltz as a rebuke to Ms. Sullivan.

Instead, he said, the union believed that Mr. Waltz “came across as someone who was concerned about teachers’ issues.” Ms. Sullivan said teachers’ unions were misrepresenting the new evaluations by suggesting that if “you have a bad year with a particular class, it’s off with your head.”

She said she was used to strange bedfellows, given that a majority of Republicans had supported many of the education bills she champions. “You can either end up doing what they’re doing at the national level — which is yelling at each other across the aisle,” she said, “or try to find the one thing where you can overlap and work on those issues.”

A version of this article appears in print on September 25, 2012, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: Teachers' Unions Wooing G.O.P., Too. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe